a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dietetic measurement apparatus, and, more particularly, to a computerized dietetic scale for weighing, calculating, and cumulatively storing the nutritional content of a person's daily food intake and for comparing it to recommended daily limits/requirements.
b. Background Art
It is common knowledge among nutritionists, health professionals, and even most lay people that general health can be linked to dietary habits. For instance, eating too many calories can lead to overweight and obesity, and eating too much fat or sodium may increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, such as heart disease, some cancers, or high blood pressure. In general, Americans often do not get enough dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron in their diets. Eating enough of these nutrients can improve one's health and help reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions. For example, getting enough calcium can reduce the risk of osteoporosis, in which bones become brittle and break as one ages.
The connection between dietary consumption and health is clear, and, as these examples illustrate, limiting certain food elements and acquiring sufficient quantities of others can help maintain good health. However, it remains a difficult and inconvenient task to monitor the calories and nutrients contained in the foods one consumes on a daily basis. In the past, health conscious individuals and those with dietary restrictions had to determine the nutritional content of a given meal by weighing each individual food item, consulting reference charts which tabulate the contents of various foods, and then mentally or manually calculating the total caloric and substantive content in the meal. Not only was the procedure burdensome and time consuming, but also many food items, such as processed and canned goods, were not listed in the food reference charts.
In an effort to make this task easier, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulated food labeling requirements, which are mandatory on most prepared foods, such as breads, cereals, canned and frozen foods, snacks, etc. Under the label's “Nutrition Facts” panel, manufacturers are required to provide information on certain food content and nutrients, as well as recommended daily nutrient and caloric input as proposed by the FDA, and present them in a standard format. While these “Nutrition Facts” labels provide additional information for the consumer, the task of measuring and calculating the total intake of individual food elements remains. In addition, nutrition labeling for raw produce such as fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. is voluntary. Thus, additional reference material is still required to determine the food content of these “conventional” foods.
Numerous dietetic measurement devices appear in the prior art which are aimed at simplifying the calorie and nutrient accounting process. Many of these devices are self-described “dietetic calculators” which allow mathematical manipulation of stored food content data by pressing the correct sequence of data retrieval and mathematical function buttons. While these devices eliminate the need for paper and pencil calculations, they are still very complex and time consuming to use.
Other dietetic measurement devices incorporate electronic scales for weighing the food, memory modules for retrieving the nutrient data, and logic algorithms which manipulate the data automatically. The primary problem with these devices is that they rely on categorized groupings of “conventional” foods to access the food content data. For instance, a pre-assigned button, or cascading menu may allow the data for poultry to be accessed. However, for processed foods, such as canned soup, the data would not be available. Without the complete nutritional information for a meal, the calorie and nutrient calculation becomes compromised. Even if the data for processed foods were stored on the device, the immense variety of processed foods would make finding and retrieving the information very difficult. In addition, thousands of new processed food items are introduced to market every day. For these items, the nutrient data would not be available in the device's memory.
Most of the dietetic measuring devices found in the prior art provide an incomplete list of contents for each food item. For instance, calories, carbohydrates, and protein are commonly listed; however, vitamins and minerals are commonly neglected. In addition, most of these devices only display the content for a single item or accumulation of items, but provide no information on the status concerning total daily intake requirements.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a dietetic measuring device that allows simplified, rapid entry or access of food content data regardless of whether it is “conventional” or processed. Furthermore, there exists a need for such a device that provides a complete list of the caloric and nutrient content of each food item being considered. Still further, there exists a need for such a device that provides the nutrition status of the user concerning total recommended daily intake limits/requirements.